The purpose of the African Women in Cinema Blog is to provide a space to discuss diverse topics relating to African women in cinema--filmmakers, actors, producers, and all film professionals. The blog is a public forum of the Centre for the Study and Research of African Women in Cinema.

Nejma Zeghidi was born in Tunis in 1977 where she studied psychology and trained in the art of the actor. From 1996 to 2003 she was involved in academic and professional theatre. She was script supervisor for the feature film Thalethun (2008) by Fadhel Jaziri, assistant in the stage construction of Sufi Hadhra music productions (2010 and 2013), actress in the play Lehmar Saheb (2012) by the same director, and in several short films. She is the co-writer (2009-2011) of the feature film in preparation "Koussouf" by Fadhel Jaziri and has written several screenplays including "Fire" which she shot in 2013. Nejma is a member of the jury of the Festival Un poing c'est court 2015 (Vaulx-en-Velin, France).

"Fire" recounts the story of a family who lost a child in a car bomb attack. A camera enters the life of this family two years after the tragedy. It films in continuous motion, seizing as it passes through, fragments of emotion, contradictions and misunderstandings. This is a film about thwarted, impossible love. Love at an impasse, deadly love, in the noble sense of the word.

The events take place after the country has been ravaged by war, when wounds begin to heal and there is the belief that it is possible to forget. How do people continue to live when the irredeemable has been committed? How do the youth manage to continue to sing, although returning from disaster?

The desire to survive by some intermingles with the morbid fear of others. Nothing escapes from it. Blood ties do not spare those concerned nor does the mysterious creatures that accompany them in their quest or flight manage to impose for long the suspension of hostilities.

Being close to the skin surface of the protagonists, their eyes and their breath; respecting the distance that modesty imposes when confronted with the intolerability of certain situations, permeates the images and invites the viewer into an ambiance where the colour confounds and revives the senses.

The camera, as observer, is concerned about these loved ones, moving responsively to the flexing, thrust and pauses of the body, redirecting us when it is no longer necessary to watch.

In this first short film you recount a tragedy of an ordinary family, but you choose a rather extravagant visual layout... why this rather particular aesthetic choice?

I am a passionate of the "ordinary", when I see people passing in the street I start to fantasise about their lives. I always imagine these far-fetched stories when I see a 49 year-old woman waiting for the bus at 6:07 am. In our societies, there are gaps between what people show and who they are. My work in psychology constantly reminds me of this.

As for the aesthetic choice, I think there are those who try to present a certain view of society by sharing their fantasies, by inspiring dreams of the "how"... in a different way.

Art definitely presents an "other" of reality. This "other" on the formal level opens the doors of imagination and creativity ... One slides into it nicely.

Your film may be read on several levels, in addition to the social drama, one discerns other political issues as well...

The intentions of the film are many, but it is important that they are not uttered. I have a frank repulsion of direct discourse.

This can be powerful in contexts such as the denial of freedom of expression. However today, seeing that it has been taken away, how are we to reclaim it? What kinds of freedom has it prepared for us in terms of content and form? How does one avoid abstraction and trodden paths?

Of course, the film explores the excesses of violence, collective responsibility, the institution of the family. But how is this articulated?